The four-storey classically styled hotel, owned by Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed, was due to reopen late this year after a three-year closure for top-to-bottom renovations.

The hotel of choice of Charlie Chaplin, Coco Chanel and Ernest Hemingway, where a small bar is named after him, the Ritz is also infamous as the place where Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed dined before their fatal car crash in 1997.